Dear Gardeners,

Finally, it feels like spring. I’m doing a lot of propagation at the moment, and with more light we see stronger seedlings emerging, which feels so positive. There are so many sowings to be done now. Here are some ideas. 

In a polytunnel or greenhouse, I would sow lettuce, beetroot, onions, salad onions, peas, broad beans, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, calabrese/broccoli, cauliflower, coriander and dill, and parsley. And as soon as possible, if you haven’t sown them already,  sow tomatoes, aubergines, peppers and chillies.

We have another packed newsletter for you. There are details on the webinar we held last week - GET ON MY LAND. It was a great discussion, with lots of ideas from our panel. One of the panel, Lara, is holding an open day and celebrating the 5th birthday of her Skool Beanz teaching allotments on 25th April. If you are local, do go along, details are on her website.

It’s also great to share an update from Tom Houghton of Community Growers CIC in Lincolnshire. They are making it possible for more and more children to have a gardening experience as part of their normal school day.

Josh Hunt has kindly contributed a great resource to give lots of ideas for those involved in school garden projects. Sharing resources and ideas like this can really help motivate us to get a project off the ground.

Thank you to our contributors. If you would like your project to feature in this newsletter then please get in touch with Nicola at [email protected]

Happy gardening,

Charles

On Friday 27^th March, Charles hosted our third Future Gardeners Forum webinar. Our title GET ON MY LAND is the catchphrase of Eddie Rixon, one of our panellists. Eddie is a farmer in Oxfordshire and has multiple ways of welcoming children and adults onto his land. We also heard from Lara Honnor and Olivia Shave. Lara runs the very successful Skool Beanz allotment and Olivia, among other things, has vast experience of working to get farming and sustainability into the National Curriculum. 

Our discussions centred around how can we, as gardeners, work with landowners and farmers to serve our youngest generation and secure regular access for them to be in nature and learn to grow.

It really was inspiring to hear our panel’s ideas and stories. If you would like to watch the webinar, you can find it here on Charles's YouTube channel. 

Our panel: 

Eddie Rixon at Lopemede farm: https://lopemedefarm.co.uk/ 

Olivia Shave at Soil.Ed: @soil_ed_uk 

Lara Honnor at Skool Beanz: www.skoolbeanzcic.com

Sheila Das, Head of Gardens National Trust, unfortunately could not attend but sent in a piece which Charles read out. [email protected]

We had this comment on YouTube from @CarastelCarastel, ‘Thanks for the message of hope and positivity. It’s making me ponder about my own garden space and about local garden related initiatives’. 

You can also re-watch the 2024 FG Forum here and the 2025 Forum here.

As the 2026 season gets underway we’re excited to publicise what we’ve been up to over this busy winter period. 

With last season’s success of our regular Tuesday and Wednesday children’s gardening clubs, we have seen more local schools expressing an interest in giving their children similar experiences. We are excited to be working with two local primary schools as well as another secondary school.  Below is a picture of a garden we have designed for one of the primary schools, and as the new financial year begins we will soon begin to build this space ready for the busy growing season ahead. Picture two is from the second primary school we will be working with, we have helped them build a polytunnel – purchased from First Tunnels – as well as building four raised beds that represent a bed for each classroom group. After the easter break the children will begin planting out their beds with earlier sown plants, these will include onions, rainbow chard, salads and beetroot, amongst many other things. 

Any local groups/schools in the county of Lincolnshire or surrounding counties are welcome to get in touch with us if they would like help planning or building a garden project. Please visit our website to make an enquiry! www.communitygrowers.co.uk

In our regular gardening groups the children have been busy sowing seeds and are beginning to clear beds of overwintered crops. These included leeks, and in our last two classes children learnt how to sow new leek seeds, as well as harvesting this year’s fully grown leeks. They also learnt how to trim, wash, clean and prepare their harvest ready to be taken home and eaten. The children have also planned to grow various vegetables that can be harvested and taken back to school to support the school’s ‘cook along with us’ programme  - helping children learn how to prepare low cost, fresh meals at home. These included broad beans, which were planted last week. It is empowering to see children learn how to grow their own food, as well as seeing them prepare it for cooking, and hearing how they ate the vegetables with their families. We hope these skills stay with them and in the future inspire them to continue growing their own.

Finally, we are excited to have found out we have been successful with a funding application to The National Lottery, under their Awards for All Environment Programme.  This will fund us to work with four schools, over two growing seasons, so each school can send a class of 20 students every week through the season, and then the following season we can repeat the process, meaning around 160 students being able to access our outdoor sessions from Spring 26 to Autumn 27. We would like to thank the National Lottery for this support and urge anyone running social enterprises/gardening clubs and community groups to apply, it was a simple process and the support is very much appreciated. 

Would you like to share your experience of growing and gardening with children?

However large or small your project, we would love to hear from you.

We hope that by showing what’s possible, others will be encouraged to get started with their ideas.

Please email Nicola: [email protected]

To help with the planning of a school garden, please see this page of my website.

For a Sowing Timeline in the Northern Hemisphere, please see this page, and for the Southern Hemisphere, please click here.

For starting a new no dig allotment or garden, this is the page.

First Tunnels offer schools a 20% discount. Do see their page here, where they feature the Future Gardeners Forum!

We would like this resource list to grow and turn into a toolkit to help set up and run a successful growing space for children, so if you have any resources you think would be helpful, please email Anna, [email protected]

Below are the contact details for the Future Gardeners Forum speakers, 2024 and 2025. Do follow along with their projects via Instagram or their websites.

Alby Jones, @nodigkid

Beth Rochford, @rootzup

Karen Waterston, @thegardenofideas

Helen Cross, @grow_cook_inspire

Tom Houghton, @thecommunitygrowers_cic, @thebostonmarketgarden

Hannah and Ross, @lettinggrow

Lara Honnor – Skool Beanz 
@skoolbeanz

Jess Creasey – Cornwall Grows CIC 
@cornwallgrows

Phil Brown – Headteacher, Bottesford Junior School 
Website: https://www.bottesfordjuniors.com/school-garden/

Sarah Alun-Jones - GROW
@wearegrow
https://www.wearegrow.org

Dan Romans-Hay – Woody School Farm, Streatham
@woodyschoolfarm
[email protected]

Matt Willer – The Papillon Project
@thepapillonproject
https://www.thepapillonproject.com